In a UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) network, attempts are made to optimize features of the system, which are based on W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), by adopting HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) and HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access), for the purposes of improving spectral efficiency and improving the data rates. With this UMTS network, LTE (Long-Term Evolution) is under study for the purposes of further increasing high-speed data rates, providing low delay and so on (non-patent literature 1).
In a third-generation system, it is possible to achieve a transmission rate of maximum approximately 2 Mbps on the downlink by using a fixed band of approximately 5 MHz. Meanwhile, in an LTE system, it is possible to achieve a transmission rate of about maximum 300 Mbps on the downlink and about 75 Mbps on the uplink by using a variable band which ranges from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz. Furthermore, with the UMTS network, successor systems of LTE are also under study for the purpose of achieving further broadbandization and higher speed (for example, LTE-advanced (“LTE-A”)). The system band of an LTE-A system includes at least one component carrier (CC), where the system band of the LTE system is one unit. Achieving broadbandization by gathering a plurality of components carriers (cells) in this way is referred to as “carrier aggregation” (CA).
Now, as a promising technique for further improving the system performance of the LTE system, there is inter-cell orthogonalization. For example, in the LTE-A system, intra-cell orthogonalization is made possible by orthogonal multiple access on both the uplink and the downlink. That is to say, on the downlink, orthogonality is established between user terminals UE (User Equipment) in the frequency domain. Meanwhile, between cells, like in W-CDMA, interference randomization by one-cell frequency re-use is fundamental.
So, in the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), coordinated multi-point transmission/reception (CoMP) techniques are under study as techniques to realize inter-cell orthogonalization. In this CoMP transmission/reception, a plurality of cells coordinate and perform the process for transmitting and receiving signals, for one user terminal UE or for a plurality of user terminals UE. For example, on the downlink, simultaneous transmission by multiple cells by employing precoding, coordinated scheduling/beamforming and so on are under study. By employing these CoMP transmission/reception techniques, improvement of throughput performance is expected, especially with respect to user terminals UE located on cell edges.